Episode 252: Soul Chats with Dr. Joe Vitale

Hey, Amy Robeson here. Thank you for joining me on this podcast where we talk about spirituality, the awakening process, mental health, and so much more. Join me weekly to get your weekly dose of spirituality and medicine. I look forward to seeing you on the inside. Hello, everybody, and welcome to today’s episode. I’m so excited you are here. I had the most amazing opportunity to have a soul chat with Dr. Joe Vitale. If you do not know who Dr. Joe Vitale is, he is amazing. He is someone that I look up to in terms of someone that’s been in the coaching industry for a really, really long time, and his longevity with it is so inspiring. What he’s doing is so inspiring, and I’m just so excited to share our conversation with you. We also talk about the Zero Limits movie. So if you don’t know who Dr. Joe Vitale is, he is famous from The Secret. The Secret was a documentary that came out in early 2000s, and it also became a book. It was all about the law of attraction, and it totally impacted my life. I absolutely loved the book. I didn’t see the documentary until way later, and he took off from that space.

He’s been on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. He’s done all sorts of different books. He has authored, I think, over 90 books. It’s amazing what this man is doing. And we talk about the movie, and we talk about his beautiful ancient Roman Ring that I got the pleasure to give him a reading in the Zero Limits movie. And I actually share more in this Soul Chat interview with him about the Ring as well. We talk about life, we talk about dreams, we talk about aspirations, we talk about him going to go get his black belt in his 70s. This man is incredible. I Hope you enjoy this Soul Chat interview, and please download, stream the Zero Limits movie on Apple and Amazon. You can watch it now. I’m so excited for this movie. Please support us. Please live your life at zero limits, and let’s jump into this Soul Chat with Dr. Joe Vitale. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our Soul Chat interview today. I’m so excited we have Dr. Joe Vitale. How are you doing today?

I’m Fantastic. I’m here with you. What could be better? This is amazing.

I’m so excited to talk to you today. What inspired you to get into the self improvement, self-help, spiritual space?

Yeah, I’ve had that question asked a lot over the decades. My simple answer is I got into self-help because I needed help. That’s the simple answer.

I was unhappy.

I was insecure, I was immature, I was not going anywhere. I had dreams as a kid. I had big, big dreams in my heart, but I was so shy and so I was going to say retarded, but in many ways, I was considered that. And so I had to look for help, and the easiest solution was the public library. And in the public library, they had a self-help section. And that’s where I began my quest, my search, and my love affair, which is what became, I guess, my vocation for a very long time. But I didn’t know it in the beginning. I was just looking for help from myself.

I love And I think that that’s usually what happens when someone’s in their darkest moments is they are searching for answers. And God, universe, always provides something to provide us. Greg comes to follow where we’re meant to go, which is really nice. I see that you have the autobiography of a yogi behind you. How has that book influenced you?

Well, that’s more recent. That’s Yogananda. And Yogananda has become my spiritual buddy over the last few years. I actually have a copy of one of his other books sitting beside me, and it’s signed by him. Oh, my gosh. There’s a lot of energy, yeah, and a lot of feel for that that’s coming from him. So he’s been in the last few years. As I went through a divorce, and we went through the pandemic, and I went through the deaths of my parents, and I went through the attempted suicide of a family member. I mean, there was a lot of darkness that hit all at once. I had to go searching again. I don’t think I’ve ever turned off the seeker me. So I’m always exploring. But during those very turbulent, exhaustive times, I’m looking for more help again. And Yogananda appeared, and I started reading his works, and I was blown away. This man was speaking to me in the most divine illuminating way. And ultimately, I got around to reading his famous book, The Autobiography of a Yogi, and that, again, opened my mind. There’s a whole chapter in that book where he talks about miracles.

Well, Miracles has been my theme song for quite a while. I wrote a book called The Miracle. I have a coaching program called Miracles Coaching. I tell everybody, Expect Miracles. I sign my blogs and my emails with expect miracles. And here was Yogananda who talked about it, I think in the 1940s. Yeah. Isn’t that amazing? Yeah, and way before me and way before I was even born. Yogananda, he’s my spiritual sidekick right now.

I read that book in my early ’20s, and it absolutely opened my eyes to what happens after death. And that’s the part where I found the most fascinating about that book. So anytime I see someone that’s connected to the book, it’s like, What inspired you? What did you like about it? I just recently revisited the book recently because I was like, What do I know, based on my knowledge now, what information that book can take me further with it? And at the time, and I’m super into crystals At the time, I didn’t realize how many times he talks about crystals in the book either, which is really fascinating. So I’m glad that you found him because he’s a fascinating Yogi.

He talks about so many things. I actually have a bangle here that’s because he wore one, and he talked about it in his book, that’s made out of 100%, I think it’s copper, 100% gold, 100% silver. And that is to help neutralize the negativity that might have come in upon my birth, and of course, to help clean the way through life. I don’t think I’ve ever shown that before. I’ve never talked about it before, but it’s one of the things I wear. I wear it because Yogananda wore one. His teacher told him to wear one. And he talks about it in one section in Autobiography of a Yogi.

I love that. And thank you for sharing it. When I met you at your house, for anybody that’s listening to this, Joe and I had the opportunity to film an amazing film together, which is Zero Limits, and I’m really excited to talk about it today. And the first thing when I met you is I started talking to you about your jewelry because I love anything that has significance because we purposely anoint ourselves with certain jewelry, and you were talking to me about your ruby necklace, and then I got the opportunity to give you a casha quicker reading on your Roman ring, which I was so honored to do. And I was thinking about that this morning before we hopped on the call, and there was another message I got for you, if you’re open to hear it.

I’m wide open. Start talking.

I got another message about the ring this morning, and that was that the metal is more important than you know because it represents the goldenness in the era in which you are seeking. It’s funny that we were talking about seeking earlier, that you’re always a seeker, but it’s always there. It’s always within it. I believe in the movie, I talked about the codes within the ring. What they mean by the goldenness, too, is that if you ever find that you’re lost or you’re seeking, tune into the metal of the ring. And then I love that you just brought up the bracelet that has the metal, too, because if you’re ever… Just, sometimes we get in our head or we get nervous about something, or we’re overthinking or death comes up, we’re grieving, things like that. You can just literally just take your finger and rub your finger in the inside of the ring, and it’ll connect you to the codes inside the ring. So it’s a way to fidget with it. So I hope that’s helpful.

It’s very helpful. I started fidgeting with the ring as you were talking about it. I took it off right now. I don’t know if anybody could see that, but we do show it in the movie. So there is a scene in there where you’re holding the ring, and we do have a closeup of it so they can see it there. Since you brought it up, I should tell everybody this ring is estimated to be 2,500 years old. It is from ancient Rome. It is solid gold. It is engraved with the word phidem, F-I-D-E-M. And phidem is Latin for faith. And when I got the ring, which was many decades decades ago. I just had it as a collectible that I loved and was drawn to, but I didn’t wear it. And then when I met Dr. Hulen, who was the man who taught me Ho’oponopono, and we co-authored the book Zero Limits and whole stories about him, he asked to see it, and he put it in the palm of his hand, and he was feeling, much like when you did a reading on it, he was feeling the ring, and he looked at it and said an ancient orator, a speaker, had worn it.

He says, You are to wear it and never take it off. And from that moment, except for moments like when I took it off right now or when I gave it to you for that sacred moment that’s on film, I’ve always kept it. So thank you for the additional insight on this ring. It’s very magical, and I had no idea when I got it. It’s one of those things, you know how the universe and spirituality work. It drops it into your lap, you’re led to it. You don’t even know why. You didn’t ask for it, but there it is. And then it becomes part of you, which is what this is at this point.

I love that. And thank you. It was such an honor to read it. And thank you for sharing that with our audience today. When I read the Zero Limits book, and if anybody wants to check it out and also check out the movie, the movie is amazing. We’ll talk about the movie in just a second. I remember reading that in the book, and I forgot all about it until you were just talking about it. I love when unexpected things like that happen. I think that when we are looking at certain precious metals, the metals are a part of our frequency code that can help us grow and expand. I love that you took his advice and you honored the advice and you ran with it because it’s a really, really special ring. Yeah.

Well, I’m very much in the jewelry. It’s ironic because when I was growing up and I into masculine things like boxing and fitness, I remember telling everybody and myself, I’m never going to wear a jewelry. I’m never going to wear a ring. Well, I got it all over me now. I’ve got bangles, I’ve got necklaces, I got rings. And these are Vedic Astralogy rings. Some of them, like this one here, is a yellow sapphire, and the yellow sapphire is open, meaning the ring is open, so the stone touches my skin. It’s the same thing on this side as a ruby, and that ruby is set in this ring in such a way that the other side of it is against my skin. Because in Vedic Astralogy, they say there are certain gemstones that help balance your karma and streamline your way. But you don’t just wear the gemstones. They have to actually touch your body. I’ve gone from the guy who wasn’t going to wear anything to having it all over me. I mean, necklaces here and there’s stuff that’s hidden.

I love it, Joe. I absolutely love it. And one of my Vedic Astralogy Stones is the yellow sapphire, too. I have that emerald, but I haven’t found a yellow sapphire yet. It feels like it’s supposed to be mine, and I’ve been on the hunt for one for quite some time. So I’m hoping to find some, but I did just find some raw yellow sapphire.

Oh, nice.

Just little raw pieces that we have that I’m excited to make a grid with.

Nice.

Yeah. So with the movie, so the Zero Limits movie, I know you went on the search to discover what Zero Limits was. You wanted to know about the Hopono Pono prayer. And when this opportunity to make the movie came out, how did it feel different than just presenting the book?

There’s several stories within that wonderful question. The very first one is, I had heard about an unusual therapist who helped heal an entire ward of mentally ill criminals by working on himself, not on them. I had further heard that it was some weird Hawaiian thing that nobody knew anything about. That was around 2003. At that point, there wasn’t anything on Ho’oponopon. There was nothing on the internet. There was nothing on the therapist. But I began a quest that became pretty much an obsession, a magnificent obsession is what we’ll call it. I even hired a private investigator to find the therapist. I did find him. His name is Dr. E. Holiakula Hulen. We did connect. I did workshops with him. We had co-authored the book, Zero Limits, and we did three events together over a 10-year period. He has since passed on. He’s gone. He’s moved into the divine at this point. But he deeply influenced me by teaching me that crazy method, which is called ho’o’pono pono. As you know, ho’o’pono pono is a way to change the outer by changing the inner. You’re changing the inner, basically, in the most simplistic way, with four key phrases, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you.

There’s a lot to unpack and unravel there, but I want to make sure people understand this came from this therapist. Therapist passed on. He left the method with me and the people he has touched. We put it in Zero Limits, the book. This is where it gets interesting because at the same time, the movie The Secret came out, and I was in the movie The Secret, and I saw the impact of a movie. At that point, people are talking about the law of attraction, and I’m thinking, That’s old news, folks. I got something better I got something that goes beyond the law of attraction. I don’t even want to talk about the secret, but the secret was everywhere. I went on Larry King, Oprah did special. I mean, the whole world, New York Times, and they still talk about the secret 20 years later. And that’s where I had the aha I got a book called Zero Limits. It’s a great book. I’ve written 90 books. It’s the only one of my books I reread because it’s such a powerful, inspiring story. I read it and I go, Who wrote this? It came through me.

And I remember thinking, not enough people read books, but they’re all sitting in front of their TV or their computer, and they’re watching movies. And that’s when I decided, I need a movie about Zero Limits. I need a movie about Hala Ponopono. I need a movie that goes beyond the secret. That’s where the quest began. It was not an overnight manifestation. I had to find the right people. And in case your audience doesn’t know, You are one of the right people. You are a star in the movie, and you just beam, and you have such insight. Of course, there’s a scene where you’re reading the ring we were just talking about, the vitamin ring in it. The long story short is, I am a very lucky author I got to meet Dr. Houlan, work with Dr. Houlan, write that book that I’m very proud of called Zero Limits, but I needed more to reach more people. That’s what led to me wanting to do a movie, which I’m proud to say It’s done. It’s done. It’s ready for the world. It’s already been nominated, as you know, for 32 awards. It’s 118 awards. I’ve been doing shows with ABC News and Los Angeles Tribune, and Business Insider.

We did the premiere that you came to, and it was sold out, standing room only, red carpet, photographers. I mean, oh, my God. I’ll shut up because I can get on a soapbox on a roll, but this is your show.

No, I’m excited because The Secret influenced my life greatly. It was one of the first… I actually read the book, and I didn’t see the documentary. I saw the documentary afterwards. And it was It’s one of those things where I’m like, this is amazing. This is so much. I’ve shared this story with you, but I want to share it again. I forgot you were in The Secret. I read Zero Limits as well. And you came across my social media feed, maybe Facebook. I don’t remember our Instagram, most likely Facebook. And it was like an ad. I didn’t recognize your face, but I was I’m going to work with him one day, and I just let it go. And I’m like, I’m going to work with him. I just had this massive download. So when this opportunity came across my desk, I was like, Absolutely. This is what I’m supposed to be What are you doing right now. And I love how the universe just plants a little seed. And I knew right there and then I wasn’t supposed to investigate it anymore. And so you’re very inspiring because for me, being in the coaching industry, You’ve had a very, very long career in doing this and inspiring people and writing books.

I think it’s so exciting that you are excited about bringing something that you’re so proud of to the masses so this movement can be made, which is huge. How do you feel this is going to influence the masses in a way that you haven’t seen with just a book?

That’s a great question. I’ll confide in you and your audience, and I’ll be very transparent. Since the movie was an idea before we filmed anybody or even knew who would be in the movie, I remember saying as my new intention, I wanted this movie to be bigger than the secret. I wanted it to do as well, but even surpass its impact, because I felt from day one that the whole story of Dr. Houlan and healing the mentally ill criminals and using Ho’oponopono on himself to influence the outer world. I thought this was the most miraculous, inspiring, unusual, incredible story of all time. When I had first heard the story, I thought it was a fable. I thought it was an urban legend. I said, That can’t be true. But as I did work with him and meet the social workers and a lot of people involved in the actual hospital, I did the research to write the book, and I realized that a movie like this can turn the world on its head. It can really spin people out of their limitations, which is it’s called Zero Limits for a reason. This is a brand.

This is a message. This is a mission. This is a movement at this point. And yesterday, we were on a marketing call for the people in the movie. I don’t think you were on it, but there’s- No, I was teaching one of classes, so I’ll be watching the replay. You were teaching me that, but there’s the recording of it. But at the very end, I had this inspired message, which I shared with everybody. In fact, when I was done sharing it, we closed the meeting because nobody could speak after it.

I can’t wait to see it.

Well, here’s what I said, though. I said, The world is really suffering. I had come in contact with several people who either attempted to end their lives or actually did end their lives. When I had heard about these suicides and attempted suicides, including one of my own family, and even now I feel it, it was like the inner part of me was collapsing. It’s like, I got to do something. I got to get some message out there. If I can only reach these people before they do the deed and give them that hope, that inspiration, the ray of sunshine, the life wrap, something, we could save lives. I thought, that’s what this movie can do. They’re not all reading books. I can’t get my in everybody’s hands. And even if I did, they’re not going to all read them. Not that many people read books, which is sad for me as an author to hear. But they are watching TV, as I mentioned, they are watching the Internet. And if I can slide that message to them, just get it to them, it could give them something to get them through the day. If they really take it on and start practicing like, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, the whole, whole, po no, po no process, it can actually transform their life.

This has gone beyond being a movie. This is actually a remedy to suffering, a remedy to the people that are considering suicide. This is a way to actually heal the planet. I do want people to see the movie, but it’s no longer because here’s an interesting movie and it has a technique in it. It’s more about, here’s a movie that can change your life. You watch it and get other people to watch it and pass it around. It’s going to be on Amazon Prime, it’s going to be on It’s streaming at the website, zerolimitsmovie. Com. People can see it. There’s no excuse not to go and see it. It’s either going to be free or next to nothing, depending on what vehicle people use. I want them to go to zerolimitsmovie. Com not because you’re in it, not because I’m in it, but because it could save lives.

I totally agree with that. I totally agree with that because I’ve been in my darkest place where I didn’t want to be here anymore. When you hear stories stories of other people’s struggles and other people’s ability to crawl and rise through the ashes, it makes you feel stronger than what you feel at that moment in time, which is really important. And what I think is really cool about the movie is there’s so many different perspectives, so many different cultures, so many different ways of looking at what does zero limits look like. And as humans, we naturally want to find what is the most relatable to me so I can see where I can go with that. And I think there’s a relatable story with all of the cast members, all the experts in there, that somebody can find a relatable story in it. And I think it’s so, so, so, so powerful. And one of the things that I found really fascinating with the Hapunopona prayer and the doctor’s work in terms of the… It was a mental prison, right? Mental hospital prison.

Yeah. As someone that- Insane asylum, really. It was a mental hospital for the criminally insane.

Yes. And those are the types of people that most people would give up on. And the problem with our society right now is most people are in an unstable place. And it’s because of many things. It’s because of economic situations. It’s also because of social media, because of the consumption rate of comparing. It’s also like our teens, the risk of suicide for teens now is drastically higher than what it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago. Well, actually, it would be more than 10 years ago, probably like 15 years ago. But the rate for taking your life as a teenage girl is insane really high. And so getting this message out there to even the parents, so the parents have a way of shifting the energy in the house, it’s shifting their perspective and shifting their relationships with their kids or knowing what to do or how to do it. And it’s really inspiring to see. And with the doctor’s work in terms of working with what people would deem as non-important people or or people that they just want to give up on. I grew up in a family that we have mental health issues.

There are mental health issues in my family that most people would have just turned their eyes to. They’re just crazy, right? But no, some people cannot help what they were born with. If they were born with bipolar, they’re born with schizophrenia or something like that. Having something like this where you can also separate your energy from someone else’s impact as well. I think is really, really powerful. What would you say to someone when they’re like, I don’t have anything, and I’m sure you’ve answered this question before. I don’t feel like I need to say sorry because I didn’t do anything wrong. What would you tell someone that may be working with the Ho’opun’o prayer, how they can work through that particular statement of, I’m sorry, please forgive me?

Yeah, that’s a great question, and you are correct. I have heard that question at this point since Zero Limits came out, I think, in 2005. I’ve had 20 years of hearing from people in every way, shape, or form. In fact, I wrote, I think, four books to help explain Ho’opun’o and Xero Limits. I wrote Xero Limits, and Then 10 years later, I wrote At Zero. A few years later, after that, I wrote The Fifth Phrase. Then after that, the most recent book is called Zero Limits Living. I’ve heard everything. The one you’re pointing out It is a common complaint. People will say, I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I don’t want to say, I’m sorry, or, Please forgive me. I didn’t do anything wrong. Well, it’s not about whether you did anything wrong or not. It’s about whether you’ve been conscious or unconscious That’s really it. My example has been, have you ever gone to a store, a grocery store, an apartment store, and it’s fairly busy, and you’re there looking at your shoes or looking at bananas, and you turn around and you bump into somebody. Don’t you naturally say, I’m sorry?

That’s the level that’s behind the statement. It’s not about guilt, it’s not about punishment, it’s not about wrongdoing, it’s about unconsciousness. When I do Ho’oponopono, and for me, I’ve been doing it for well over 20-some years, maybe 25, and a lot of it is on autopilot in my head. So even as I’m talking to you, the I used to say the background tape, but the voice in my head is, I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. It’s going on all the time. And we’re saying these things to clear up our unconscious beliefs. If they’re unconscious, you don’t even know that they’re there. When somebody says, I want to use holo, polo, polo because I got financial problems. Well, when they say, I’m sorry or please forgive me, it’s for the limiting beliefs around finances that you don’t even know are there. It doesn’t mean you’re wrong. It doesn’t mean you’re guilty. It doesn’t mean you’re going to be punished. But it does mean you bumped into somebody at the grocery store and you say, I’m sorry. You bumped into this invisible blind spot of a limiting belief in your brain, and you want to say, Oh, I’m sorry, please forgive me.

I don’t know where it came from. In Dr. Hulen’s version of Ho’oponopono, these beliefs are downloaded to from the beginning of time. If we start to think we inherited all of this, then you really feel like it’s not your direct responsibility that you have it, but it is your direct responsibility to help get rid of it. And this is the level that we say when we’re saying, I’m sorry, please forgive me. I’m sorry for wherever the belief came from, could have come from my parents, grandparents, the beginning of DNA on an alien planet. We don’t know where it came from, but we know we got it. There’s a limiting belief there. All right, I’m sorry. Please forgive me and please forgive my ancestors. All of us have been unconscious to this. Thank you for taking care of it. Thank you for resolving it. Thank you for deleting the belief from here all the way through back to the beginning of the Cosmos. And I love you, which is my all time favorite thing to say. I love you for the cleansing. I love you for the process. I love you for the healing. I love you for taking care of this from my family.

And in ho’oponopono, the belief is when you take care of it in yourself, you take care of it for all humankind. It’s amazing. So when we take care of the limiting belief and we go back into prosperity. Now you’re taking care of that for everybody, not just you. So I love you. I’m sorry, please forgive me. Thank you. They’re very neutral statements, but they actually unlock power and clarity that wasn’t there before, mostly because we were unconscious to it.

I love that you say that because the guardians of the Akashic Records so often say it’s important to acknowledge forgiveness and just saying, I’m sorry, because you unknowingly and knowingly do things all throughout the day. And a lot of times it’s unknowingly, unknowingly, you hurt someone because Well, you could have accidentally cut someone off as you’re driving. Don’t realize they spin out and hit their tire and get a flat tire, which completely ruins their day. But you’re oblivious to the fact of that happening. But in some way, shape, or form, you hurt that person, even if you didn’t mean to do it on purpose. And it can be tiny small acts that happen throughout your lifetime. And I think it’s really important to clean the energy like that as much as we possibly can. And I call this even closing out the day and scrubbing out the day because we have so much that just is constantly flying at us all throughout the day. And so I think the Hopona Pono prayer at the end of the day can be a really powerful thing to say, and it doesn’t take very long at all to say it.

Yeah, that’s what I remind people. Saying these four phrases takes about a second and a half, and it doesn’t cost anything, and nobody even knows you’re doing it. It’s an inside experience. And Dr. Hulen said that if you knew how much cleaning and clearing was being done when you did the Ho’opunopono phrases, you would never stop doing them, ever. And I have taken that on. In the beginning, like anybody, when you first learn the four phrases, you go, What were those phrases again? And you got to write them down. I have a little yellow sticky that I put on the computer and I can go, Oh, there it is. I I’m sorry. Please hear me. Thank you. Until it started to become memorized. Then by continually doing it, it becomes automated, and then it becomes part of my consciousness. That’s what’s going on for me, and I think that’s the best way to do it. I’ve told people many times, if you have a problem in your life, that’s when you really want to focus on, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, because you’re feeling something. You are in the mud at that point.

While you’re in the mud, you really focus I see. But the other thing I’ve learned is that by continuously doing it, I pulled myself out of the mud, now I’m going through my life. By continuously doing it, the example I use, it’s like a street sweeper that goes out at night. In most big cities, they got a snowblower or a street sweeper that goes out while you’re sleeping, and it’s cleaning the road. So when you get on the road the next day, it’s clean. That’s holo, pono, pono. You do, I I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. Whether you’re in the mud or not, just to do it out of the meditation. And as a result, your road through life gets clean before you step on it. Yes.

Which is fabulous.

You start off with a really sparkly, clean road, which is great.

With the movie, I know I want to switch directions. That’s going to come out September 25th on Apple and Prime. If you’re interested in doing that, make sure you go check those out. You can also go to the Zero Limits movie website, and we’ll put that in the URL in the show notes and description. I want to go in a completely different direction with you. All right. Bring it on. You just recently just started, and I loved it. I saw your post, and I was like, Yes. Love that. You started doing martial arts, and you have a lofty goal. What’s your goal, and why are you inspired to do martial arts at this age?

When I turned 71, which was the end of last year, I marched into a mixed martial arts dojo, sampled the class, was totally unnerved, challenged, and frightened. And I thought, This is what I got to do. And I signed up for the entire year. And I started going to the class. I started getting some belts. And then because some people know me from my books and everything, the man who founded that particular martial arts, Covars mixed martial arts, had known of me, and he wanted to meet me. So we had lunch, and We had lunch and we were both impressed with each other. We both came out of nowhere and we’re creating something, him and martial arts and me in the world of self-help and spirituality and even marketing. He had just flippantly, as a throwaway comment, said, If you just kept going in about four years or so, you could probably have a black belt. I remember he planted a seed. There was another person who was a black belt karate champion, who I had met through the Napoleon Hill Institute, who was giving me some lessons by iPhone. In other words, he’s in Texas, I’m now in California.

He would make a lesson on the iPhone and send it to me. I’d look at my iPhone. This was a long, tedious process, but I was so inspired that he was taking the time to do it. He started saying, I envision you as a black belt. I thought, Where is this coming from? And as you know, the universe starts speaking to you through other people. And so here I have Kovar telling me you can be a black belt, and Sensei Lewis telling me it can be a black belt. And I thought, I’m going to own it. And I publicly declared, I’m 71, just getting into mixed martial arts, haven’t been in a dojo in over 50 years, but I’m going to have a black belt by the age of 74, if not sooner.

I love it. I absolutely love it. And you’re practicing. It’s a practice. Martial arts is a practice, just like yoga is a practice. You’re practicing it. And what do you tell yourself when you come across maybe a position or pose? I’m not sure exactly what it’s called. What do you tell yourself when you come across something that’s challenging or it feels like it’s incapable in your body to do? Because as we get older, our bodies start to hurt, they ache, things like that. So what do you tell yourself? What’s the process of working through that challenge?

What a great question. I think this is really useful for people because all of us do things or a little scary, a little unnerving, and maybe really big in terms of terrifying us because we’re thinking, We’re going to do what? I’m looking at this, and of course, I’ve been around the block in terms of doing things that are scary. When I decided to be a musician at the age of 60, I was terrified. I was literally terrified because I thought, I don’t even sing in the shower. How am I going to record music? How am I going to get on stage? How am I going to do it? You have no idea how traumatizing it was for me to consider being a musician. But I also had enough skills to know, question your beliefs, do ho’o, po’no, po’no, take it one step at a time, get coaching, mentoring, all the things we know that were. As a result, I recorded 15 albums. That was amazing. That was a Rolling Stone magazine. And so my music is, you can even see me playing some music in the movie, Zero Limits. There’s a little segment or two there.

I know from that, and also somewhere in my ’60s, I took up strongman training. And strongman training is when you bend a horseshoe in your bare hands, steal bars, push a nail through a board. I mean, this is superhuman stuff that also scared me. It also scared me because I was in my 60s doing that and thinking, Man, I’m going to get hurt. I mean, what if the nail goes through my hand and not the board? I mean, this is scary stuff. And again, I know, question the beliefs, assure myself that I’m going to take care of myself, take all the precautions that are necessary to learn what I I got to do. And of course, I did strongman training. I got a pile of horses shoes. I used to meet people for lunch and say, Hey, I bet this nail for you. And they just looked like, Okay, what do I do with this? But it was me going to the next level. So when I go to Kovar’s martial arts, it’s mixed martial arts. It’s everything from jujutsu and grappling to kicking and kempo to other things that I can’t remember. There’s sparring, there’s boxing.

Most of it’s contact. You’re wearing gloves and you’re wearing a helmet, but you’re getting hit and you’re hitting back. So this is real-world stuff. And part of me wanted to do it because I thought, When you get older, we keep hearing you have to do something to be engaged. And for most people, they walk and they do crossword puzzles. It’s not quite engaging to me. You got to keep your muscles. Yeah, I needed to do more. And this challenges me. It absolutely challenges It challenges me mentally and physically. I spend a lot of the day like, I’m going tonight to another class, and next week I’m being tested for the next belt, which I think is the green belt. I’m doing this, but I have all day to psych myself up or psych myself out. I have all day to wrestle with the demon that shows up saying, Man, you don’t have to go. Nobody’s making you go. If you blow it off, nobody’s going to think anything of it. But also the other part of me that is going, I’m doing this for me, and I also know when I had posted that enough people are looking that I’m inspiring them, and I’m not going to let them down.

I’ve got to do this to go through this and make a difference. Then the final thing I want to say, and this is probably what I should have said first, I have an operating belief, and that operating belief is also a title of one of my books, and that is, Anything is possible. Anything is possible. Whenever I have a goal, a dream, an intention, and it scares me because I’ve never done it before, which is usually when it scares us, is that we’re going out of our comfort zone. We haven’t done this before. I’ve said that if I was going to decide to climb mountains in the Himalayas, the first thing would happen is I’d be? In my 70s, out of shape, over away? I’m going to go climb a mountain? But I would find a way because anything is possible, and there’s always a.